Western Law

No one tells tales of the frontier better than Louis L'Amour, who portrays the human side of westward expansion - the good and the bad - before the days of law and order. Collected here are seven stories penned by America's favorite Western author.

In the wild space of the Deadlands, Taurus Station is where miners and tourists come to play, and the ravager gangs follow close behind. Out here, far from the civilized world, the Law has a name. Gage Walker is the son of hard-nosed asteroid miners. Brash, rough, and crude, he's one of the few deputies working the station. Still a rookie, Walker is tasked with the security of a mining magnate's daughter, an easy job that quickly takes a turn for the worst.

Shad Marone is hunted across the desert by a posse and vengeful sheriff who falsely accuse him of murder and intend to kill him without a trial.

Diggett Monroe's gang of outlaws wants to take over the town of Endurance, Idaho. To this end, they ambush Sheriff Pelham Birdsall, leaving him for dead. But Birdsall, thanks to his young wife Delight, doesn't die, and as she strives to get him back on his feet in time for the inevitable showdown, more and more of the sheriff's duties fall on her shoulders. In this, she is assisted by an unlikely deputy and a three-legged dog, but in the end, it takes all of them to vanquish the outlaws.

Nebraska, 1876. The western frontier is wild and needs a lawman who can tame it. Joe Mundy is such a man. A veteran of the Civil War and Indian wars, he once wore a badge in the booming cattle town of Baxter Springs, Kansas. A deadly gunfight with a prominent rancher costs him that badge. He finds his next job enforcing the law in Taylorsville, a new town in the sandhills of Nebraska.

While portraying life in a new settlement on New York's Lake Otsego in the final years of the 18th century, Cooper deftly explores the cultural and philosophical underpinnings of the American experience. He contrasts the natural codes of the hunter and woodsman, Natty Bumppo, and his Indian friend John Mokegan with the more rigid structure of law required by a more complex society.

Smoke Jensen sat in a cave and boiled the last of his coffee. He figured he was in Idaho - somewhere south of Montpelier - but he was certain about only two things: He was cold and he was being hunted by a small army of men. Smoke knew why he was cold - it was winter. He just didn't have a clear idea of why anyone was after him.

Red-headed Rann Tate, when he settled in the grim desolation of the Gallows Mountains, wanted only a chance to work his little spread alone and in peace. But even on that lonely rawhide frontier a man cannot cut himself off entirely from human friendship - although there might be a heavy price attached, brought about by the same forces that gave these mountains their dreaded name.